Re: Lynching

: : LYNCHING -- According to this article http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20030813_185.html "lynching" as a legal term doesn't have to involve a rope and racial hatred. The article, in part, says:

: : NORFOLK, Va. Aug. 13, 2003 - Anthony Buco David II died on his 24th birthday, two days after he was beaten outside a Virginia Beach nightclub.

: : Following a monthlong investigation, prosecutors charged two sailors in David's July 7 death not with murder, but with lynching...

: : Though the term is commonly thought to suggest mob hangings, the charge was brought because the 1928 statute defines lynching as act of mob violence that results in death. And though David was Filipino and the suspects are white and Hispanic, authorities determined race was not a factor. . .

: : South Carolina is the only state that still regularly makes use of its lynching law, defined as any act of violence by two or more people against another, regardless of race. An Associated Press analysis earlier this year found that blacks now account for 63 percent of South Carolina's lynching charges meaning blacks are charged with lynching at 4 1/2 times the rate for whites.

: : While "lynching" came to be associated with racial matters, no one has ever successfully defined the word in a way everyone agrees with, said historian Christopher Waldrep, author of "The Many Faces of Judge Lynch" and a history professor at San Francisco State University. . .

: The expression "Lynch Mob" has no racial overtones in the UK. A "Lynching party" or mob is simply an outbreak of civil disorder that is directed at an individual and which often resulted in a non-judicial hanging. At the edge of old churchyards are "Lynch Gates" with a cover. (Full) coffins would often wait under the shelter of these gates before burials. It is not unlikely that there is a connection. As I emphasise, in the UK there is no racial element to the word "lynching" whatsoever.

Those are usually called lychgates. I don't believe they have a connection with lynching.